i'll be your weapon (if you help me find peace)
by AKissAndAGunshot
Summary: As a spartan, it's essential to take full advantage of the rare moments of quiet and solitude. Missing scenes from Callsign: Sierra
1. 01 In the cave

**"I've never written (a title like this)" before. They used to annoy me a lot, but they've kinda grown on me.**

**X-X-X **

**01**

_**In The Cave**_

**X-X-X **

_Kind of out-of-the-blue, isn't it? Some cold highlands cave isn't exactly most people's idea of a good time… then again, none can say we spartans aren't used to the roughest of the rough. _

Six crossed her legs again, then folded her left arm across her body in a bar stretch.

_Well, you're here, she's here, at least one of you is certainly interested, and you've both got time to kill… is there really any harm in asking? _

Kat unclasped her helmet, putting it down gently beside her. "Hey, Six," she called.

The other spartan looked up, fixing her eyes on Kat.

"Tell me to get bent, if I'm out of line," Kat said, her tone deliberate. "But… well, wanna fuck?"

Six's eyebrows rose - and _stayed _that way, much longer than her usual passing twitches that passed for expression. She didn't speak up immediately, and when she did, she sidestepped the question.

"Is this a common advance?" Her head tilted. "Casual sexual encounters between members of a fire team?"

"Not, ah… not uncommon, depending on the fireteam," Kat replied. "I'm given to understand it's pretty widespread, in the regular marines and infantry. Rarer in the spartan corps, what with our unusual hormone profiles, but extant."

Six continued looking at her, though her surprise had already relaxed back into a neutral look. Or at least, as neutral as one could be, when sitting unmoving, making direct eye contact, and seldom blinking.

Under the stare of the mismatched eyes, Kat suddenly felt rather small, and she looked away quickly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, and I won't bring it up again."

"I did not say no."

"Huh?" Kat looked back just as quickly. "...I guess you didn't, did you."

Six shook her head, and somehow her expressionless gaze managed to convey an analytical air. "Are there contemporary examples of such encounters occurring between spartans?" She asked. "In defiance of anti-fraternization rules, that is."

Kat shifted uncomfortably. "Well… I don't want to kiss and tell…"

"Noble Three and Noble Four."

Her voice carried just enough inflection to sound decisive, and Kat hung her head. "Yes. Those two are, as they say, an item."

"I suspected so." Six brought a hand up to her mouth in an almost exaggerated thinking pose. "Searching out their tells was useful practice."

"Seems dangerous to me," Kat said, her voice growing darker. "Sex is just, well, sex… but a close relationship like that seems like asking to be hurt. After all, we series-threes are made to die."

"But spartans never die." Six put on an actual _smile,_ and Kat wondered if she meant to be mocking - since the expression certainly came across as more than a little plastic_. _"They only go missing in action."

_What the hell? Miss stoic, silent and down-to-earth, spouting that old poeticism?_ "Hah. Very clever, Six."

"My answer is yes, by the way."

"... Oh."

"How does one go about this?" Six was already reaching for the tension clasp on her collarbone, which had to be undone to access the outermost of the five zippers that went into sealing the armored gambeson.

"Go about… what?"

"Fucking."

"How does one - _wait. _You've never done this before." It was a statement, not a question.

Six nodded.

_Fuck, not even a quickie in an empty locker room in boot camp? Must have been an unpopular kid. Practically everyone in Beta Company managed that at least once._

"Dammit, Six," Kat groaned. "That's… awkward. Do you really want your first time to be in some damp, cold cave?"

The other spartan glanced out at the misting rain, then back, at the bare rock of the cave floor. Finally, she looked back to Kat. "It will do."

"You're sure?"

"Do you intend to rescind the offer, Noble Two?" Six's voice remained as opaquely even-toned as ever. "I do not intend to rescind my acceptance."

Kat looked at Six for a long minute, and finally, she shrugged. "I guess we're doing this, then," she said, reaching for the plating clasp under the back of her left gauntlet.

Six watched attentively as Kat removed the armor, plate by plate. When the vambraces and rerebraces were removed, she finally spoke up.

"May I help you?"

"Sure." There was no way to make a graceful task out of disassembling a MJOLNIR mkV-B armored battlesuit, but two pairs of hands could cut eight or ten minutes down to just three - and sure enough, with Six's help, it took less then a hundred and fifty seconds to strip down to just the black undersuit.

_I wonder if she drilled rapid arming and disassembly… she's certainly got quick hands. _

When the last plate of cerulean alloy clattered to the ground, Six reached for the tension clasp on the collarbone of Kat's gambeson. As the elastic fell open, Kat _almost_ went for the same clasp on Six's undersuit, but Six was as quick with the fastenings and zippers of the under-plate layers as she had been with the metallic exterior. In a scant few seconds, she was detaching the white right sleeve, then pulling it off of Kat's shoulder; a few seconds more, and she was peeling the membrane layer open and pushing the suit material down Kat's arms, leaving her clad only in the armor's thin dragline-silk undergarments.

Kat pulled the peripheral clasps and zippers open herself, and wriggled her shins out of the lower legs of the suit. That done, she spread out the gambeson on the flattest section of the rock floor to be found.

"Not exactly a queen sized bed, but it'll do." Kat quickly shucked off the silk, then reached over to get Six's peripheral zippers. Though the other spartan did not shift her expression, a tiny noise of surprise escaped her, and Kat noted it for future reference as she helped Six out of her undersuit and placed the other gambeson beside her own.

Though still clad in the silk - little though the tight, gossamer-thin shirt and shorts left to the imagination - Six reached over to Kat, touching her fingertips and then palm to the bare skin of Kat's shoulder just above the collarbone. It was light, hesitant, but Kat could tell she was curious.

Kat took ahold of Six's hand, stopping her. "Don't worry about me," she said, a smile playing over her lips. "I'm ahead of you in this game, aren't I? Let me make you feel good."

For a moment, Kat almost thought she saw a look of confusion in Six's eyes, but the other spartan nodded and let her hands fall. Her gaze was back to neutral, almost clinical, but seemed to track over Kat's body with great attention to detail.

Kat resisted the urge to cover herself like a bashful teenager. "Like what you see?"

"Yes."

It was a whole word, rather than just a nod. Kat wondered if it meant Six was flustered; if so, it certainly didn't show on her face.

Kat touched the hem of Six's silk shirt, but the discordant sensation feedback brought her to a sharp halt, and she looked down at her hands - one, flesh and skin over bone, the other, polymers and silicone over titanium. "I… do you want me to disconnect this?" Her left hand ghosted over the anchor point in her right shoulder.

"No." Six tilted her head inquisitively. "Why would I?"

Looking away, Kat flushed. "It's not… not quite a human hand. I'd understand if you'd think it felt strange, or -"

"Do you want to touch me with it?"

Kat frowned. "What do you mean?"

"If you want to touch me with your right hand, then I want to be touched by it," Six said patiently, taking Kat's artificial hand between both of her own.

"Oh." Kat looked into the dark glass and glowing green optics assembly in Six's left eye, and felt a little silly, then, for worrying as she had. "I do want to touch you, then."

Six nodded then, dropping her hands and leaning back a little to give Kat better access, just as tight-lipped as ever. Kat frowned as she reached for the hem of Six's shirt again. "Six… I know you don't, well, talk, when you can avoid it," she murmured. "But I'll _need _feedback here. I'm not a mind reader. If you don't like what I'm doing, tell me, okay?"

A nod, then a blink. "I… will speak up if I wish you to stop," Six confirmed, her voice soft.

"Good." Kat pulled on the fine fabric, and Six obligingly lifted her arms, wriggling awkwardly out of the final layer of cloth. The shirt mussed her short hair, leaving it standing on end; Kat would have laughed at the sight if she wasn't a little wary of coming across as unkind.

The other woman's skin was a detailed map, telling the secrets otherwise hidden under the black ink in her duty file. All spartans were scarred, even the young ones, but the prevalent theme for most of them were the skin grafts of plasma burns - sometimes with needle starbursts or the neat lines left by energy swords. In contrast, Six's body was almost exclusively adorned with shrapnel marks, knife scars and even a few healed-over bullet holes. Until Noble Team, Six had been a slayer of _men, _not aliens.

She twitched when Kat touched her, shivering, and Kat almost pulled away. "You good?" She asked, worried all over again, but Six nodded.

"You can lie down, you know." The padding of two armored undersuits wasn't quite a mattress, but the hydrostatic gel layer was a much better cushion than bare rock. Kat wasn't entirely sure if Six could parse the difference between a suggestion and an instruction, but either way, the other spartan let herself sink back onto the material.

She still seemed so _tense. _Though she didn't shiver or twitch away again, Six clearly wasn't very relaxed.

Kat halted her touches, laying her hand flat on the center of the other woman's chest. "Still alright?"

Six opened her eyes, nodding, although her heart rate didn't slow.

"Well… you just seem really tense."

"I always become tense in unfamiliar scenarios," Six replied seriously, and Kat let out a soft chuckle.

"Cute way of putting it." Kat's voice turned serious again. "But, I don't want you pushing yourself into this on _my_ account."

"I will speak up if I wish you to stop." The calm repetition didn't ease Kat's worry as much as she would have liked, but Six was an adult; there was only so much worry that could be appropriate, before it came time to simply let the other party make their own decisions.

So, Kat moved her hand again, drawing tantalizing trails around Six's breast without ever quite centering in. She brought her other hand up, touching the side of Six's neck where it met the shoulder, and Six let out a tiny gasp.

"Good?"

"Good," Six echoed, her tone a little less even than before.

Emboldened, Kat ran her hand her hand higher, tracing the shell of Six's right ear as her other hand found a nipple.

"Ah!"

"Good?" Kat couldn't help but grin, although she tried not to be _too _smug about it.

"Yes," Six hissed. "Good. Very good."

_High praise indeed. _

Kat went to touch Six's left ear, but was met with a _very _different reaction. The other spartan yelped, jerking away. "Stop!"

"Sorry." Kat withdrew her hands immediately. "Not there?"

"No. Not…" Six blinked, sighing softly through her nose. "Not that side of my head, or neck."

"Got it." Kat tilted her head. "Stop for good? Or -"

"No." Six reached out quickly, grabbing Kat's right hand. "Continue."

"Alright." Kat backtracked into safer territory, and she felt the tension begin to bleed out of Six's muscles as she touched her. As Kat's fingers drifted lower, if anything, the assassin seemed _more _relaxed than she had been before.

_Maybe she just needed tangible proof that she can say no?_

"Ah - ahaha," Six squeaked, squirming a little, and Kat's grin might have lit up the whole cave.

"Are you - damn, are you _ticklish_ there?"

"I - I think so."

"That's cute as hell." Kat moved her fingers again, encircling Six's hips with her hands. "Still good?"

"Yes."

Kat didn't waste any more time. Six gasped, squirming as she had before - although she was pushing _into _the touch, this time.

"Good?"

"Yes," Six replied, her voice breathless. "I think."

"If you need me to stop, just say the word."

Six nodded, closing her eyes - for a moment, at least, before Kat moved her fingers again. There was a hum rising in the back of her throat.

_Never would have guessed she'd be one to make a lot of noise. _

The other spartan was already wound up like a clockspring. It only took anither minute or two before she twitched, her eyes closed tightly, and her whole body seized up with toe-curling tension. The hum became a gasp, a series of sharp breaths - and then trailed off into soft laughter. _Real_ laughter, not a ticklish giggle.

"Are you - are you _laughing?" _Kat's tone was incredulous.

Six just nodded, her eyes still closed. There was a bright smile on her face as she rolled over, snaking her arms around Kat's midsection.

_"Ісус Христос."_ Kat half-heartedly tried to push Six's arm aside, but the other spartan only clung tighter. "A cuddler? I'd have believed it, maybe. But, damn, I didn't think you _could _laugh."

Six let out another short chuckle, but then appeared to sober up in the span of less than a second. "Neither did I," she replied, her voice quiet.

**X-X-X**


	2. 02 In the showers

**Not beta'd :(**

**X-X-X **

**02**

_**In The Showers**_

**X-X-X**

_It is not like her __**to linger like this. **_**Her usual pattern is to attempt, in all things, to be an exemplar of military order. **_Yet, she is currently acting in exception to that pattern. _

_I feel preoccupation with her well-being; a furrowed brow, nervous energy:__** Concern…**_

"Noble Two?"

There was a sharp intake of breath from the other stall. "Damn, Six. You scared me."

"You have lingered for at least nineteen minutes and twenty-one seconds," Six said, closing the door to her own stall and peeling off her training fatigues. "Over fifteen minutes longer than your median shower duration. I grew concerned."

"That's sweet of you, Six, but I'm fine." A soft splashing. "Just… a little stressed is all."

**If we are to kill and die together,**_ is it not upon us to help each other? _

"Let me know if I can help." After all, all she could do was offer. It would be the other spartan's responsibility to accept that offer, or, indeed, reject it.

Six washed herself quickly and efficiently, then turned the hot water up for a moment, letting it spray against the left side of her face. The prosthesis, despite its high-tech construction, sometimes still irritated the surrounding soft tissues; a steady application of warmth could often soothe such irritation before it erupted into a full-blown headache.

**I did not **_**expect to form **__this strong bond with Noble Two. But of the spartans of Noble Team, she is the one I trust most. _

There was a soft _thun_k from the other stall, and Six was immediately alert, kicking into high tension as she prepared to respond to threats.

"Sorry, Six. Just trying to get my head back down to earth."

_She is under stress; perhaps I can help.__**I know little of how to calm others in that regard,**_**but improvisation is one of my strengths. **

"Would a distraction assist your de-stressing, Noble Two?"

There was a soft huff from the other stall. "I have a name, you know."

It seemed like an implicit request to _use_ said name, so Six tried again. "Would a distraction assist your de-stressing, Catherine?"

"Oh god, that's even worse." A sigh. "Look, do you not hear the others calling me Kat?"

_**I would not otherwise **_**presume to use a nickname, **_but I believe that constitutes an invitation. _"Would a distraction assist your de-stressing, Kat?"

"Uh…" Apparently considering the offer, Kat hesitated momentarily. "Maybe. Can't hurt, I guess. What do you have in mind?"

_**What indeed?**_ Several dozen suggestions flooded Six's cortical caches, courtesy of her integrated randomizer fishing through several weeks of memories. Most were just as rapidly canceled, deemed nonviable. One remained.

"You have yet to, so to speak, 'cash' the rain check from our first training game."

_Agitation spike. Am I __**anxious?**_

"Huh, you're right. Is that an offer I hear?"

"Yes."

There was a long silence from the other stall - long enough for Six's cerebral linguistics router to enter hibernation. When Kat finally spoke up, no words were missed: the cybernetic implant restored Six's ability to articulate herself, but she had never lost her _comprehension._

"Then, sure. By all means."

A quick analysis of ambient sound indicated that the shower room was, other than the two women, unoccupied. Six unlatched her stall door, and moved to face the stall currently occupied by her fellow spartan as its own door opened.

Kat looked somehow _softer,_ like this, in ways that Six's extremely analytical mind found hard to quantify. Sure, she'd been just as naked the first time they'd done this - but even stripped out of her bulletproof, energy-shielded heavy armor, Kat had still seemed every bit the invincible soldier, confident and commanding in her presence.

Now, water dripped from her hair and ran down the curves of her body. Her right shoulder sported only a protective cap over the anchor implant, and her posture was more relaxed, less alert.

**She is vulnerable. **_I could kill her easily, like this, were I tasked to do so. _The thought elicited a complex swirl of feelings and sensations,and Six suppressed them quickly, logging the event for later review; in the moment, she had other responsibilities to attend to.

She stepped forward, gently closing and latching the stall door behind her. "May I?"

"Sure."

Six took another step forward, crossing the last of the gap between them, and put her hand on the wet, gleaming titanium of Kat's shoulder. "If you do not like what I am doing… tell me," she said, echoing Kat's own words from the first time they'd done this.

Kat just nodded. Six tilted her head, then, looking over Kat's body with the care of a skilled commando used to surveying their targets in detail. Not that she hadn't gotten a good look in the cave, weeks ago, but the circumstances were different enough that she wanted a second look.

_I feel that… I might have wanted a second look regardless. _

Kat tensed at some touches, and her breathing shifted at others. She was very quiet; it made her tells subtle, and obliged Six to pay meticulous attention to every little change.

A shift in her stance as Six's hand trailed down her sternum.

A flush creeping down her neck as Six's fingertips grazed a nipple.

A soft, stifled intake of her breath as Six's thumb drew over her lower ribs -

"D- dammit, Six," Kat stuttered. "Don't be like that…"

"Not good?" Six twitched her hands away, her arms curling back into a retreated position.

Kat groaned. "Good," she managed. "Not _enough."_

"I see." Six was faced with a dilemma; both her hands were occupied, and she was unwilling to give up comprehensiveness for the sake of speed. The logical course of action was clear.

Kat's skin was warm, and didn't taste like much of anything; as expected, for someone so recently washed with plain army-issue soap. Still, the shiver that went through her body as Six's lips touched her was more than sweet enough to encourage Six to continue.

Without quite consciously deciding to, Six found herself tracing her lips down the many lines of scars and edges of skin grafts that adorned Kat's body. She wasn't quite sure on the best way to proceed, but the obvious direction seemed to be _downwards - _

Kat's breath hitched. "Not… not bad, for a rookie," she mumbled distractedly, her left hand rising to draw ridges through Six's hair.

"Good, then?"

_"Yesss. _Good."

Six smiled, drawing her lips lower. "You are quieter than I expected," Six murmured, her eyes turning upward.

"Not a lot of privacy in Camp Currahee, was there?" Kat replied. "Instructors weren't exactly forgiving if they caught - mm!"

Dropping to a full crouch, Six kissed the side of Kat's knee, fingers following down the length of her leg. Kat's head and shoulders shielded Six from the direct spray of the shower, and the water caught the glare of the overhead LEDs, casting a glittering halo of white light around her.

"Good?"

"Damn, Six, do you _really_ need to take your sweet time about this?"

Six tilted her head, worry rising at Kat's strained tone. "Not good?"

Kat took a deep breath, her fingtips ruffling Six's hair as she steadied herself. "I'm - trust me, I'm already worked up," she replied, a needy whine undercutting her voice. "Get to the point."

"I apologize. I wanted to be sure of your tells."

"My tells?"

But Six didn't waste any more time, leaving a trail of three rapid kisses up Kat's other leg before moving in on her target. At the touch of Six's mouth, Kat actually _squeaked,_ her hand finding its way back to Six's head.

Six looked up, her tongue slowing as she carefully surveyed Kat's reactions. The other spartan was biting her lip, her eyes tightly closed.

_I doubt she needs much… more. _

Six drew away, long enough to say one word. "Good?"

_"Yes! _Good! _Please, _Six, just -"

Redoubling her efforts, Six dove in again. Kat's legs started to shake, and Six quickly wrapped her arms around the other spartan's thighs to keep her from falling.

As before, Kat was quiet. Her breathing sped up and became irregular, and she drew her hand away from Six's hair to bite into the soft tissue of her thumb. The only sound that escaped her lips was a soft hiss. However, with how _intimately _connected they were, Six couldn't miss the rapid loss of tension in Kat's posture.

_Then _Kat made a noise - a brief, sharp huff of surprise - as Six sprang upright, alarmingly fast, and put her hands on Kat's shoulders. "Nice to know you'd catch me, but I'm not going to fall _that _easily," Kat chuckled.

Six nodded in acknowledgement. "... Good?" She asked, faintly surprised by the hesitation in her own voice.

"Good," Kat affirmed, leaning forward against Six's shoulder. "Quick learner, you…"

Six said nothing. Her shallow understanding of social protocols prompted that she should probably respond in _some _way, but no words came to mind; so she just stood there, holding Kat gently.

"Well, shit," Kat murmured. "Now I'm… sticky. Gotta wash up all over again."

"I apologize," Six said, ducking her head. She released Kat's shoulders, and stepped away, but Kat caught her wrist before she could leave completely.

"Don't be sorry. And… thanks. For the, uh, distraction."

_Ah, yes. This was not purely self indulgence; it was also supposed to have been for her sake. _

"Was it satisfactory, Catherine?"

"Don't you dare start that again," Kat said firmly, though she was smiling.

"... Was it satisfactory, Kat?"

"Very." Kat leaned down, retrieving the forgotten bar of soap. "Well, if the Commander wasn't annoyed at me for taking too long before, he certainly will be _now_. Come on. I'm sure you need to wash up again too."

**X-X-X**


End file.
